The Trader Joes Sign Painters

Sean fields a listeners question about the behind the scenes sign painters of Trader Joes grocery stores.

Transcription:

Coming to you from Starr Studios in Denison, Texas, this is Coffee with a SignPainter, a weekly podcast hosted by sign painter, Sean Starr, that consists of interviews with other sign painters and some of the customers and characters Sean comes across while running his studio. Okay. Welcome back to another episode of Coffee with a Signpainter. Today, we're gonna address a question from a listener again. This is from Eric up in Portland, Maine, and he brings up an interesting point.

He's asking about the sign painters, employed at Trader Joe's grocery stores. I don't know if you have a Trader Joe's near you, but if you do, then you know that they have the majority of their interior displays and signage are all hand painted, and they they do that in house. So Eric's got a good question about that. And, it's kind of a silent, silent group of sign painters out there that, represents hundreds of sign painters that are working in those stores and on those displays. So, let's listen to Eric's question, and, we'll go from there.

Hey, Sean. This is, Eric Lohman again from Portland, Maine. I had another subject to breach and bring up and thought it might be of interest to you. I I got my start in sign painting, just walking into a Trader Joe's, just to get a job bagging groceries after art school. And they were like, hey.

Are you gonna need sign painting? And I said, yeah. Sure. And, and just ended up paying signs for Trader Joe's, which is strange and, you know, making signs for products you don't really wanna make. But, Trader Joe's has, you know, 500 some odd stores, maybe a little less than that.

And, inside of every one of those stores is, you know, a dedicated sign painter or two or five depending on the size of the store. And it's a really interesting sort of facet of, people in an organization that have no background in sign painting at all, but can apply for the job out of nowhere just like the captains who get paid, you know, 6 figures to manage a store, which is pretty phenomenal for, for such a, you know, crazy capitalistic enterprise. But I thought that was interesting. And a lot of those people are artists outside of it, and, you know, they just come in there and then make it their own. And you have these weekly critiques with a with a a a person on the floor who's like a manager who has no knowledge of anything art related whatsoever, and they critique your son.

So it's, it was funny, and I I got in a lot of fights with a lot of people there verbally. But I haven't worked there for many, many years. But I thought it was interesting knowing that there's, you know, probably well over a thousand sign painters, quote, unquote, within the Trader Joe's world, that get paid very well. I mean, I started out there $20 an hour, which is insane. And I I just listened to your episode on the two Australian brothers who, one works in the the brewery up in, in Canada.

So, I thought it'd be of interest. Have a good one. Bye. Well, of all, thanks, Eric, for, calling this in. For those of you that that don't know, we have a feature on our website at seanstar.com, that allows you to record a question, that, either me or one of the guests can address.

So if you have any questions, feel free to jump on there and record your question, and, we'll try to get to it in a future episode. But, back to Eric's, question slash comment. I think it's a really interesting point that, you know, there's this whole sector of, I think sign painting, that's out there that is probably under the radar. You know, we're we're in such a Internet centric, phase of our culture that it's almost like if you don't show up in Google, you don't exist. And if you're working for a company, like Trader Joe's, and you're in the back paint and signs, and you know, you're not posting them online frantically, then yeah.

People probably don't even know you're doing it. I mean, obviously, if you walk into the store, they know. But as far as being part of the the community of sign painting, you know, it's a good point. You know, I don't think that, that they're really, you know, seen or recognized. And, they should be.

I mean, there there's a lot of great work I've, seen in Trader Joe's. When we were in California, there's Trader Joe's on just about every other corner, it seemed. But, they're a little bit more rare here. Although we were thrilled to find out that, just south of us in a town called McKinney, they've got one. So So my wife and I make a pilgrimage down there about once a month to stock up on good wine and fattening cheese.

But, yeah. So you know, that that kind of brings up, you know, that whole whole idea of who's out there. You know, I think most of us have connected, prior to social media through there was several, hand painted sign lettering type forums that have taken on different forms over the years, that some of us have belonged to and participated in. And, you know, and those things kind of come and go. It's kind of weird.

It's almost seems like there's this great energy and this great, support and rush to, being involved in a forum. And then after a while, you get these characters that start showing up that, just kind of have a negative outlook on life. And, they start to interject that. And, you know, I I I there's a few others I've discussed this with, so it isn't just my own view. But, you know, after a while, you get kinda fed up and you just drop out and, you know, it seems to have a life cycle, these forums.

But at any rate, you know, a lot of us, met and stayed in touch through the forums. And I think that that kind of rolled over into social media. You know, Facebook, Instagram, where a lot of us, you know, are rubbing shoulders in those environments. But not a lot of us have conversations. Although I have developed a few friendships, outside of social media because of that initial contact.

But, you know, it's it's an interesting thing. I mean, you know, if you if you look at, something like Trader Joe's, that model is kind of where a lot of sign painters got their start before all the computerization. Because you'd go to work for some company that would just stack one thing after another in front of you and then you had to jump on it and produce it and get it out and get it in front of the public. And, you know, that's the that I mean, that's essentially the life of of the show show card painter years ago was, you know, well, we're we're putting this suit on sale next week. We need, you know, 12 of these to stack around the store to show that, you know, that suits on sale for $10 or whatever.

So, yeah, it's an interesting model. And I think part of the reason for that existing could be that, you know, Trader Joe's is a European based company, I believe, from what I've read about it. So I think they've got a different outlook. Probably even on The value of sign painting, for instance, because, they see it differently. You know, I think most American companies, are so focused on bottom line and profits and all of that that I I doubt that, even even if they they saw it as an advantage on a marketing end, I think they would probably, look to exploit it rather than, you know, across the board make it the arrangement.

I I spoke about this in a previous episode with Matthew Foster. You know, I was approached by probably the largest pizza chain company in The United States, to do, you know, some sign painting for them. But, basically what it was is they wanted to film, me doing some sign painting, and exploit it through video that they supported, you know, these handcrafted type things. But when it came down to it, they were just gonna have decals made to stick on all the stores based on the artwork that I created. So the illusion would be that, you walk into this unnamed pizza joint and, the because of the detail on the window and because of this video that would, circulate through social media and their website and everything else, it would give the impression that they were hiring artisans and craftsmen to, execute this, sign painting work on their buildings.

But in fact, it would just be a cheap, knockout sticker. And I, I ran the other direction as fast as I could. You know, I just, I don't I don't get it. I don't understand the, the duality of that, but, you know, to each his own. So, yeah, there there you go.

I I think that's a a good thing to, consider and maybe even reach out, you know. Like, if you're in a Trader Joe's, you're seeing somebody monkeying around with the signs, installing one or something, you know. Give them a shout. Let them know that, you're a sign painter and or a aspiring sign painter and, you know, get to know him a little. I know when we were in Southern California, I believe it was San Bernardino, Trader Joe's.

Somebody down there was doing fantastic work. Every time I went down there, I would just stare at what they were doing and go, holy cow. What's this person doing in Trader Joe's? But not that that's a bad gig. I mean, obviously, like Eric said, I mean, they start them out at $20 an hour and, you know, there's plenty of weeks.

I'd love to make $20 an hour. So, so there you go. Okay. Well, little short episode this week. Got some great interviews coming up, in future episodes.

But, thanks again to Eric for leaving a question that starts conversation. And, we will talk to you guys next week. And I'd like to again thank our sponsor of, Full City Rooster Coffee Roasters in Dallas, Texas who, they make the sign painters blend and ship that all over the world. And we are getting great feedback on that. So get you some of that.

We're also in negotiations to be bringing on a new sponsor soon. So that's kinda cool. Growing support for the show. So I'll I'll tune you guys into that when the time is right. But until then, enjoy the onslaught of early summer, at least here in Texas.

It's, really stinking hot and humid right now. And, we'll talk to you guys next week. Today's episode of Coffee with a Sound Painter is brought to you by Full City Rooster Coffee Roasters in Dallas, Texas, roasting distinctive coffees from around the world. Sean drinks Full City Rooster coffee every day in the studio. You can order their coffee online at fullcityrooster.com.

Thanks for listening to Coffee with a Signpainter, hosted by Sean Starr. You can find all sorts of info about the show and sign painting, including previous episodes at our website, seanstarr.com.